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Everyman & Playhouse Reunite With Kneehigh For New Version Of Gunter Grass’s Masterpiece The Tin Drum

The team behind smash hit Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) will reunite this autumn for a new version of Gunter Grass’s masterpiece The Tin Drum. The co-production between Kneehigh, Everyman & Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse will run at the Hope Street venue from Thursday 28th September to Saturday 14th October before touring the country.

One of the defining novels of the 20th Century, Gunter Grass’s dazzling tour de force, The Tin Drum will be brought to thrilling theatrical life. Directed by Mike Shepherd, written by Kneehigh Artistic Associate Carl Grose with music by Charles Hazlewood, The Tin Drum is a folktale for troubled times: a dark, burlesque comic extravaganza, which is at once daringly provocative, political and profound.

Kneehigh Artistic Director Mike Shepherd said, “I have reassembled the creative team behind Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) to make a new version of Gunter Grass’s extraordinary novel The Tin Drum. Our iconic anti-hero, Oskar, will lead us through a world as delicate as moth’s wings and as incandescent as a blazing saw mill. A grand musical satire, it promises to be furious, funny and fiercely full of hope – a story very much for now.”

Everyman & Playhouse Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz said, “We are thrilled to be co-producing with Kneehigh once again to bring this remarkable, coruscating 20th Century masterpiece to Liverpool. Kneehigh are rightly celebrated as one of this country’s greatest theatre companies with an international reputation to match and they share many of our aspirations for open-hearted theatre that delights and surprises audiences.”

On Oskar’s third birthday he rails against the adult world and decides to remain a child forever. Armed with a heart full of rage, a singing voice that shatters glass, and a seemingly indestructible tin drum, Oskar sets about to reveal the world for what it truly is

However, the world has other plans for our hero…

Often hailed as one of the greatest novels ever written, Gunter Grass’ surreal post-war masterpiece has never been more prescient. Kneehigh will retell this extraordinary story of love, war and fizz powder as a startling musical satire. Part Baroque opera, part psychedelic white-out, part epic poem: a burlesque, a blitzkrieg, a tsunami.

Tickets for The Tin Drum will go on public sale on Tuesday 14th March. Tickets are priced at £10-£30*

*A single transaction fee of £2 applies to all phone, counter and internet bookings. Cash payments are exempt from any transaction fees.